COHSASA - Improving health care through standards & accreditation

The Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa (COHSASA) is the only internationally accredited quality improvement and accreditation body for healthcare facilities based in Africa. In the past 19 years over 600 facilities throughout the continent have entered the COHSASA programme to improve the quality and safety of the healthcare services they provide to patients.

Through its integrated and system strengthening process, COHSASA assists a range of healthcare facilities in Southern Africa to meet and maintain quality standards. This range includes hospitals, clinics, general and family practitioners, rehabilitation centres, hospices and laundries with standards being developed for many other services. There is a strong focus on building capacity to help healthcare professionals measure themselves against the standards.

COHSASA has recently been awarded a fourth consecutive accreditation by the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua). The award is valid until 2018. ISQua is the global authority responsible for ensuring that health accreditors are themselves meeting standards. In addition, COHSASA’s hospital standards (Edition 6.7) and its surveyor training programme have also been accredited by ISQua.

BBBEE Compliance

COHSASA is a Level Four BBBEE Contributor. Click here for current certificate. In 2003, the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (B-BBEE) Strategy was published as a precursor to the B-BBEE Act, No. 53 of 2003. The fundamental objective of the Act is to advance economic transformation and enhance the economic participation of black people in the South African economy.

To assist healthcare facilities in developing countries to deliver quality care to their clients through sustained improvement, using internationally recognised standards and based on patient safety principles and operational research.

COHSASA is based in Cape Town, South Africa. While many of its employees are based at the headquarters in Pinelands, staff members are always in the field, and this workplace is spread throughout Africa.

There has been a bumper crop of accreditation awards for hospitals and Environmental Health Offices of the City of Cape Town from the Council for Health Service Accreditation of Southern Africa (COHSASA).